


The New World

by bethany81707



Series: Stories of Garreg Mach [27]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Apologies, Confessions, Flash Fic, Implied/Referenced Torture, Seteth's True Name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22745197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethany81707/pseuds/bethany81707
Summary: Edelgard goes to Lake Teutates and holds a talk with the man she knew as Seteth.
Series: Stories of Garreg Mach [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552720
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	The New World

To a dragon, five years isn’t a long time. But Cichol was surprised to find himself waiting as long for this day. Two women emerged from the fog, orbs of flame circling their heads to illuminate their surroundings. One woman bore a brunette head and stood proudly, while the red-headed companion calmly followed behind, the Relic of Gloucester in her hands and glowing red. Cichol recognised the seal that granted the powers of Gloucester’s Crest pinned to her breast pocket.

“Welcome, children,” Cichol said, holding forward a hand. The leader took it, eyeing him thoughtfully.

“My thanks for accepting us thus far, Seteth,” she proclaimed.

“Though could you please not call us children?” her companion drawled. Cichol nodded, allowing a smile to reach his lips.

“Of course. Even a human teacher would still see his charges as his students, but you are no children. You being alive here before me is proof of that,” Cichol assured them.

“Flattery won’t be necessary. Cichol, correct?” the leader asked.

“Correct. Seiros left many falsehoods in the records presented to you, but the only lies she intentionally wove were those with immediate benefits. I am indeed Cichol, father of Cethleann. I suppose you suspected Indech?” Cichol asked.

“Or Macuil, though which of the three Saints you were did not matter beyond mild embarrassment if I called you by an incorrect name,” she said.

“Of course. To business. You are aware that what you have done has assured myself and Cethleann no place outside of hiding for the next few centuries, Empress?” Cichol asked.

“I am. I meant no insult to you, Cichol,” Edelgard said.

“No offense was taken. I watched Seiros in the form you knew her in and did not act in time to prevent the tragedy that unfurled. I was witness to her final moments, and saw her petty revenge. What happened to her was a tragedy, but ultimately, I believe it a necessary one,” Cichol explained.

“What drove Seiros to create the world I was born into?” Edelgard asked.

“The same thing that drove you to change it. Grief. She was always closest to Mother. She was not the favourite- forgive my immodesty, but that would have been me- but Seiros did not leave Sothis’s side for far longer than our life cycle expected. A clingy baby, you might say. When Sothis ultimately passed, Seiros did not believe it. She lashed out at anyone and anything that might have brushed next to those responsible. Once her war ended, she wished only for things to return to how they were. Sothis and the dragons alive in Zanado once more, herself at Sothis’s feet like a lost puppy. Maintaining the strength of the dragon’s blood with her Crest system and attempting to bring life for Sothis’s Crest Stone were her only goals,” Cichol explained.

“I did not wish for the lives of my siblings back,” Edelgard said, electing not to refute his other points for a moment.

“An inconsequential point, you think? On the contrary, Empress, that is the key difference between yourself and Seiros. Seiros wanted to have the past returned to her. You know that the past is the past, and cannot be changed. You set out to see your future realised,” Cichol said.

“And I had people to tell me what I was doing wrong. Bethany, Ferdinand, Claude, Lysithea… without them, I would have been as ruthless as Seiros,” Edelgard observed.

“That was what I hoped to achieve as Seteth. I hoped to convince Seiros of her foolhardiness and set her upon a more productive path. As you may have gathered, my success was limited,” Cichol said.

“I only attacked because I was worried about my time. Perhaps we could have reached peace, given enough time,” Edelgard suggested. Cichol shook his head.

“Enough time, when you’re talking to one as long lived as I, would not have existed in your life no matter your body’s shape. After all, we will still be alive when your new society falls,” Cichol said.

“And you will come out no sooner?” Edelgard asked.

“We will make brief visits, decades apart from one another, to verify the scope of the political landscape and confirm whether we will fit in to a new society. There is one problem, however,” Cichol said.

“Oh?” Edelgard asked, in spite of herself.

“Seiros failed because she refused to change. As one as long lived as she, why would she? But your society, no matter what form it takes as it evolves, will pride itself on just that. Change. We will watch over this continent, but we may never fit in because of it. We do not change. Especially not quickly, or without stimulus,” Cichol explained.

“Tradition becomes stagnation. There is always a better way. Bowing your head and bemoaning your place in life will only add to the torment you find yourself in. There is no torture worse than not being able to end it,” Edelgard said.

“I suppose you learned that lesson the literal way,” Cichol sighed. Edelgard bared her right arm, showing the scars still traced onto them through means Cichol did not even care to contemplate. He had always wondered why Edelgard always covered every inch of her skin.

“My own torture is nothing. Think of Bernadetta, of Dorothea, of Sylvain, of Ingrid. The problems you knew them to possess were caused by Seiros’s society, and yet they were the ones condemned for struggling against it,” Edelgard said. A notion that baffled Cichol, but as he reflected on what he knew of their pasts, he realised what she meant.

“I must thank you for this chat. It has proved most illuminating. I trust you can say the same?” Cichol asked.

“I can, Seteth. Do you believe you can change my society for yourself and Flayn?” Edelgard asked.

“I may desire it, but I will not perpetuate a cycle of uprising. I do have a plan in mind,” Cichol said.

“You have learned Seiros’s lesson well,” Edelgard remarked.


End file.
